


The Reunion

by AnnetheCatDetective



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Engagement, Family Reunions, M/M, Newt is related to everyone, also several others, the massive Charlie crossover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-27 19:20:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14432394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnetheCatDetective/pseuds/AnnetheCatDetective
Summary: So I'm working on an actual serious crossover thing but thanks to group chat silliness, I banged this quick thing out first. There is nothing serious about this.





	The Reunion

Hermann steps out of the cab, shielding his eyes from the sun until Newt escorts him to a shady spot. He needs a moment to take the place in-- the big farmhouse, the rolling green expanse, the trees, one of them with a dangling tire swing. Tables set out with food and lemonade and iced tea, and all the groups of people chatting. 

 

It’s the groups of people that have Hermann, for a lack of better word, shook. 

 

“Attractive group.” He says weakly. 

 

Newt looks up at him with an adorable little pout. “Please don’t get weird on me.”

 

“Well, I am only saying-- I mean, you could take it as a, as a roundabout sort of compliment, they are your relatives.”

 

“Okay, here’s who you’re allowed to be attracted to-- Gunther, because… everyone is.” He points out the uncle in question, the one Hermann hadn’t already met. Hermann can see why everyone is. He’s never seen a man the phrase ‘silver fox’ fit better, and while he doesn’t look as much like an older Newt as many of the relatives in attendance, he has that rockstar attitude, a grin that sits somewhere between boyish and roguish and awkward, a leather jacket slung over his shoulder, jeans tighter than any man his age should be able to get away with, and yet…

 

Newt is definitely pouting.

 

“Well I am sorry but you said I could.” Hermann coughs, with a blush.

“Not more than you are to me.” Newt whines.

 

“Darling, please. As if I could ever be more attracted to anyone than I am to you.” Hermann takes his arm, settling in close. 

 

“Okay, like… I guess um… Andy, if you have to.” He points to an older relative, one who looks exactly like Newt might, in fifteen years’ time or so. Academic, neatly bearded, playing with a group of children, little tiny things, one of whom resembles childhood photos of Newt. “Oh-- Benny. You’ll love Benny.”

 

Benny is unmissable, once Newt points out which relative he is. He’s exactly as energetic as Newt is, if not moreso, bouncing around between people, never still for a moment. He looks very like Newt in terms of general shape. He’s wearing a NASA tee shirt. 

 

“I’m sure I will-- but of course never more than I love you.” Hermann kisses Newt’s cheek. He points out another relative. “And which one is this?”

 

“Dale? You can do better--”

“I am doing better.” Hermann laughs. “I just mean which one is this, I don’t know many of these people yet.”

 

“Dale, Jason, Chad, Mike, Dan, uhh, don’t know… don’t know a lot of people.” He says, rattling off the names of the group of men with Dale at a grill. “And Illia but you know him. Anyway, now the more important list of people you are not allowed to find attractive, let’s start with Illia and my dad because that’s too weird.”

 

Privately, Hermann thinks Jacob Geiszler is entirely crushworthy, but discretion is very much the better part of valor here. Anyway, it’s not so much that he thinks he’s bound to develop actual crushes on Newt’s relatives, more that some of them offer a glimpse at the future, Newt’s future… the sort of face Hermann might be waking up to in ten, fifteen, twenty years… Clean shaven, neatly or heavily bearded, only slightly scruffy…

 

“And don’t get a crush on Charlie. Like, please do not find that attractive.” Newt says, pausing to wave to a couple of people relaxing up on the porch swing of the house, which must belong to one of these relatives. “And the number one person you cannot be attracted to ever is my cousin-- well, you know what, he’s not even going to show up. Come on, let’s get you a place to sit and then I’ll grab us some food, there’s plenty of time to meet everyone.”

 

Hermann doesn’t particularly need to sit after the long ride out, so he’s happy enough to be distracted along the way by a couple of introductions, but there’s music drifting out the window of the house, and the shade of the porch is welcome, so he leans against one of the posts and stretches out carefully, while Newt introduces him to the men sharing the porch swing with a purring cat. The un-crushworthy-according-to-Newt Charlie and his partner. 

 

It’s not just that Charlie looks very much like an older Newt-- although Hermann is hit by that right away-- it’s that his partner could have easily fallen off the Gottlieb family tree. And the only reason Hermann knows this is not the case is that the Gottlieb family tree has no branches off in other countries, is left with very few branches between the pruning of his grandfather’s generation and the flowering of his siblings’ families.

 

This could be them someday. Old men holding hands on a porch swing, with a cat purring away in a lap.

 

Well, this couldn’t quite be them, because in many ways Charlie is utterly unlike Newt, but still. Hermann likes seeing the two together. When they get up to return to mingling, Hermann does take a seat on the porch swing, letting the cat inspect him to see if he is trustworthy, and he smiles when Newt settles in beside him.

 

He closes his eyes, just enjoying the gentle breeze and the fresh air, and the sound of music and distant chatter, until he feels Newt stiffen beside him.

 

“Well,  _ hello _ good looking.” A stranger leers-- an odd thing to hear at a family reunion, until Hermann realizes the man means him, and he looks up to see…

 

Well, a slightly older version of Newt, though it’s hard to tell what the age difference between them might be exactly. They’ve clearly led very different lives. The stranger has a moustache that screams retro sleazebag, and facial scars that do not instill much more confidence. It’s Newt’s reaction that informs Hermann’s opinion the most, however. He’s quaking at Hermann’s elbow.

 

“You must be one of Newt’s… cousins?”

 

“I must be.” The man extends a hand. Hermann ignores it, and he chuckles, reaching over to Newt instead and patting his cheek. “Newt and I used to spend all kinds of time together.”

 

“Hermann, that scar on my leg was because he stabbed me when I was ten.”

 

“Okay, that was not a purposeful stabbing.” The man holds his hands up. “And you’re the reason I still have a couple places on my body where the hair won’t grow back, those experiments of yours.”

 

“Yeah I should have got your lip instead.” Newt puts an arm around Hermann. He’s not afraid, Hermann realizes, he’s furious.

 

“Bygones, though, right, buddy? We can’t hold onto accidents from when we were kids--”

 

“You weren’t a ‘kid’ when--”

 

“And now you should introduce me to your friend.”

 

“No way in hell.”

 

“We’re cousins, we should share.”

 

“That’s the creepiest damn thing you’ve ever said.” Newt frowns.

 

The man makes a non-committal noise, shrugging. “To you, maybe. I mean is it better for you if we all three do something or is that worse? It doesn’t have to be weird, there’d be a whole person between us if you really want to be a part of things--”

 

“Excuse me, but you haven’t even asked me if I was interested, and clearly I am not.” Hermann snaps.

 

“Really? People are usually interested. I mean, give me a chance, I could win you over for a night. Show you some of the finer things. Fool around a little, then you go back to doing your thing-- my cousin-- and I go back to mine. If you can be attracted to all that, then all this has to be right up your alley.”

 

“No. It really doesn’t.”

 

“If you don’t stop trying to seduce my fiance, I swear--” Newt starts.

 

“Fiance?” Hermann turns.

 

“Oh. Fuck. Yeah, well-- I had it planned out way better, but…” Newt pulls the ring out of his pocket. “I figured if you could meet the extended clan and not run screaming for the hills, maybe then you’d…”

 

“Oh, Newt, of course I-- Yes. Please, absolutely.” Hermann ignores the scoffing and eye-rolling from Newt’s cousin, offering his hand. They’re both shaky as Newt slides the ring into place, he’s definitely teary when Newt leans in to kiss him.

 

“So that’s a no on the sex?”

 

“Holy fuck, dude, that’s a no!” Newt motions for his cousin to leave. “It’s always going to be a no!”

 

“Okay, well. Catch you around then-- Oh, hey, I met your other friend out on the west coast,”

 

“Other friend?” Newt’s brow furrows. Hermann can’t think of any friends they have out on the west coast of the states. Nor any friend who would want anything to do with this person.

 

“Yeah. Yeah, great guy, but he seemed to think I was you, so he kind of chokeslammed me against a wall. Which,  _ hot _ , but I guess he thinks you stole his shoe? Or… something about kaiju. But also he wants his damn shoe back and he definitely called me a kaiju fucker. So I said ‘oh you mean Newt’-- no offense-- and we got off to a little bit of a rocky start, but I mean, I like him.”

 

Newt is shaking again, though this time he does seem scared. 

 

“Hannibal Chau? No-- Hannibal Chau is  _ dead _ .” Newt shakes his head, clutching at Hermann. 

 

“He was alive when I saw him. Anyway, I told him I’d come by the reunion and ask you about the whole shoe thing if I saw you, but--”

 

“I saw him get eaten!” Newt screeches, rocketing to his feet, one clenched fist flailing out purposelessly.

 

“Yeah. Well, crazy world, isn’t it? So I should tell him no shoe, then?”

 

“I mean, I mean you  _ would _ like a guy like Chau, wouldn’t you? Tacky as hell one-eyed motherfucker shoved a knife up my nose, no wonder he’s your best friend now. I saw him get  _ eaten _ !”

 

It’s Gunther who comes to break up the fight, and Newt’s cousin scuttles off when he does. 

 

“Hey there, kiddo, who’s, uh, who’s this?” He asks, nodding to Hermann, and this is enough to take away Newt’s dark mood. He doesn’t even complain that Hermann is a little tiny bit starry eyed over his coolest uncle.

 

“Gunther, this is Hermann, my fiance.” He grins proudly.


End file.
